Sour Grapes sure. But I’m not too far off. So here goes my tirade.
David Stern should just give the Spurs the title. Basketball is becoming a circus much like the other “controlled” sports: boxing, casinos and dog racing.
Basketball is entertaining sure, but its losing any semblance of a sport. It’s becoming less about talent and technique and more about marketing and acting.
It is well known that certain “marquee” players can take a third step and not get called for the travel. In the playoffs the big names can do no wrong, while the no names can do no right. Last years fiasco between Devin Harris and Dwyane Wade may be quickly forgotten by some but not I. In pivotal game five Dwyane Wade went to the line 25 times because of “fouls” (the Heat went to the line 49 times) while the entire Dallas team went 25 times – all 10 players. To cap off this ridiculous attempt at “reffing” the Heat are down by one with seconds to go in overtime, Wade drives for the basketball and misses… but wait an imaginary foul is called, Wade goes to the line, sinks both shots and the Heat go on to win the Championship (in game six).
So Dallas loses game five at home to Miami by one point. This is also the game where David Stern tipped the scales toward his anointed champion by suspending Jerry Stackhouse for a game for a “hard” foul in game four.
I was over it – I thought. And then in this post season my Dallas Mavericks lose in the first round (without any help from Stern) so I root for my backup – the Phoenix Suns.
Now this year the Spurs are headed to the Finals because David Stern kicked two of the Phoenix Suns starters out of game five because of a flagrant foul that a Spurs player laid on Steve Nash (the Suns point guard) in game four. And who says history doesn’t repeat itself.
Basic Recap: Robert Horry checks Steven Nash into the boards. Suns bench rises in anger but is calmed down by its own staff. Meanwhile the players on the court come to a confrontation. Horry is ejected and suspended the next two games (as he should have been). But David Stern, the next day after having plenty of time to consider options and make the correct call, ejects two of the Sun’s players (Stoudemire and Diaw) because they left their bench area (never mind the fact they returned to it by their own volition seconds later). He says he has to enforce the law (bad law though it was) impartially. Question: aren’t judges supposed to “judge” things and weigh the severity of it? Even hanging Judges would have been more lenient then Stern was. Hum… interesting last name Stern has. Hopefully the owners will sack his sorry self during this off season or he’ll become the ringleader instead of the commissioner.
Anyway the Spurs go on to barely win game five in Phoenix thanks to Stern’s removal of two of their biggest threats and clean up in game six.
Just a thought: If I was the coach of San Antonio would I want to win the championship because of a dirty play my guy initiated? Where is the honor in sports anymore? Popovich seems like a classy guy but he missed a golden opportunity this time to show it. I think it would have been a very gutsy, courageous and heroic gesture for him to have set out Duncan in game 5 as a sign of honor. If they win, they win on a leveled playing field. If they lose they have game 6 & 7 to come back. But the only reason they won game five is because Stern kicked out the Sun’s starting center. And Popovich took advantage of the situation.
For that matter what about Duncan? He could have set himself out as a sign of honor. Can’t blame either of them, but I surely won’t honor them.
Who am I kidding? Sports aren’t about honor anymore. They’re about winning. That’s why the league allows and players take advantage of the most ridiculous foul calling when it comes to flops.
Sometimes I’m watching the WWE and a Basketball game breaks out. With all the flops you may confuse it for gymnastics.
What ever happened to “no blood, no foul?” Mano “the Flopper” Giniobli may be a great player – but I’m very confused because half of the game he’s on his back trying to go to the free throw line. And of course, the refs oblige him. I could make some crude comment about “Desperate Housewives” but that wouldn’t be in keeping with my sites attempt at decency.
Whatever happened to role models? These players I’m witnessing aren’t role models. They play dirty, are rewarded for playing dirty, flop when touched and then whine when the calls go against them. Duncan, who I used to like when he had Robinson by his side, has become a laughingstock to everyone outside of San Antonio. His “who me” look is comical and boring – seen it before a thousand times.
I can’t blame the players for being such wimps and coaches for having tunnel vision but all of this is not setting good examples for our youth.
The whole debate about where character comes from is just the chicken and the egg revisited sure. But while character should be taught at home; it is reinforced, at the least, by the role model athletes that our young people choose. What does it say for our future when we reward and elevate the people in our society that take advantage of the rules, show no honor, whine when it doesn’t go their way and then are named champions?
Aside: I gave my students the opportunity to pick a role model of their own choosing to write a report on and give a brief presentation about. While I pitched the idea of Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Frederick Douglas, George Washington Carver, among many others; the most popular selections where professional athletes such as Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Carmela Anthony among many others.
And the saddest thing is, this is happening at the Spurs franchise which was known for its character under David Robinson. A man who refused to forgo his commitment to the US Navy after going to the Naval Academy and the organization who drafted him anyway knowing they wouldn’t get him for another two years.
The Spurs were an example of what was right in the NBA and this world, now they’re an example of all the stuff that’s wrong.
By the way, when the post season started my teams were the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and then the San Antonio Spurs. Now I’m rooting for anyone BUT San Antonio. And the cap with their emblem that I bought during Robinson’s tenure will be going the way of the Mavericks and Suns playoff hopes as well as the Spurs honor.
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